Israel launched further air strikes on the Gaza Strip yesterday for the second day running. Its "Cast Lead" operation has so far left 300 Palestinian dead and 900 injured, while Israel is threatening Hamas, which is in control of the Strip, of launching a land operation. An Israeli governmental official said the government has agreed to call in 6,500 reservists, while Israeli military sources mentioned that the Israeli army has started gathering its infantry and artillery close to the borders with the Gaza Strip in view of a possible land operation. Israeli planes bombarded – intentionally, according to eye witnesses – the borders next to the Rafah gateway on the Palestinian side halting an Egyptian convoy heading for the borders themselves. Chaos spread on the Egyptian side, but Palestinian ambulances later managed to enter Egypt and bring aid. A dispute broke out yesterday between Egyptian officials and leading figures of the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas over the opening of Rafah border crossing to let Palestinian wounded into Egypt. However, those injured were not able to leave the Gaza Strip, although the Rafah border crossing was left opened all day long. Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit accused Hamas of preventing the injured from entering Egypt. "We are waiting for the wounded, but those in control of the Gaza Strip are not letting them cross over" he said yesterday at a press conference. Hamas' media spokesman Sami Abou Zahra, though, denied Aboul Gheit's statement on the opening of the border crossing. He said the minister just wanted to cover up the stance of some Arab parties, especially as Israel's war on Gaza has been declared in Cairo, he said. In Cairo, the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak welcomed yesterday his Palestinian counterpart Mahmoud Abbas. They held an emergency meeting to discuss the ongoing Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip and the ways to stop it. The Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned yesterday Israel's Ambassador to Cairo Shalom Cohen for the second time in two days. According to an official diplomatic source, the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed Cohen of Egypt's protest against Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barack's declarations about extending the Israeli operations in Gaza. More than 50,000 Egyptians demonstrated yesterday nationwide to protest against the Israeli raids on the Gaza Strip and to call on their country to cut diplomatic relations with Israel and to expel the Israeli ambassador from Egypt.
